The first game after the international break will see Tom Cleverley spending an evening at Plymouth in the stands due to suspension.

The Watford head coach was booked and now has to serve a one-match touchline ban, but given the performance of referee Anthony Backhouse it was a very forgivable offence.

The match official gave a series of increasingly mystifying decisions as the game went on, including booking Vakoun Bayo for dissent after he had been rugby-tackled to the ground and showing James Morris a yellow card for a ‘foul’ which was right in front of the linesman, who signalled nothing.

“It’s happened a couple of times this season now where the winning manager has come out and criticised the referee,” said Cleverley.

“That shows you how one-sided it felt at the end of the game.

“It certainly doesn’t do my heart rate much good and it could have been more comfortable, but it felt like it was one-way decisions towards the end.

“I’ve been punished for it and it means I’ll be in the stands at Plymouth.”

One of Mr Backhouse’s most baffling and infuriating decisions was awarding Bayo a yellow for dissent moments after he had been hauled down in what was quite clearly a foul.

“How can I keep a lid on the players’ reaction when some of the decisions are so bad?” Cleverley said.

“It’s a really difficult job for me to do, and I’m trying myself to become calmer.

“I respect managers like Luke Williams in the week at Swansea who can just take it in his stride.

“But, I’m sorry, I’m an emotional guy and I want to win so bad.

“When I feel like the refereeing is one way, it’s really difficult.”

There was the unlikely sight of Paul Robinson doing his best to restrain the head coach in the dug-out.

“He pretty nearly pulled my arm out of my socket one time!” laughed Cleverley.

“The guys knew I was one booking away from being in the stands and unfortunately it’s happened today.

“But I would have taken that for three points.”

One suggestion put to the Watford boss was that officials should look more closely at player body language.

Oxford were awarded a corner deep into stoppage time when the player who had put the chance wide had his head in hands and made no sort of appeal.

“I don’t do my job perfectly – far from it,” said Cleverley.

“And when you’ve got thousands of decisions to make in 90 minutes, there are going to be mistakes.

“I 100% empathise with that situation.

“But look at the goal that Burnley had disallowed in the week. There were no appeals from the West Brom players and that tells me there has been absolutely no foul.

“To disallow that goal was strange, and so maybe it is something officials could pick up on.

“But we’re no angels and we’re certainly not perfect.”